Lalu says no tie-up with Nitish Kumar

Patna: Even as the JD(U) reportedly began an initiative to tie up with its bitter rival Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD of to allow a smooth sailing to the state government and begin a combined resistance to the ‘communal’ BJP’s rise in Bihar, Mr Yadav himself scotched all such possibility. He described reports in a section of the media about talks held between him and JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav for a tie-up as “baseless and concocted.”

The RJD supremo said that he was watching the political flux in Bihar in the wake of the LS poll results. But he got another blow when three rebel RJD legislators who had tried to split away in February and then helped the JD(U) in its poll campaigns demitted Assembly membership on Sunday.

The Opposition party in Bihar, the BJP, exulting after its massive victory in the Lok Sabha polls, on Sunday asked Governor D.Y. Patil to prevent possible horse trading by the ruling JD(U) in its desperate efforts to shore up support for its minority government after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation.

“Since the ruling JD(U) lacks a majority to form a government, there is high possibility of horse trading due to rising rebellion in the party after its humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha polls. We urged the governor to hold a parade of all MLAs pledging support to the government and take written support letters from all parties pledging support to the government,” said senior BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi after submitting the party’s memorandum to the Governor.

In an apparently calculated strategy to inflict more pain on the shaky JD(U) government, the BJP neither displayed any willingness to form an alternative government nor demanded the dissolution of the Assembly, whose term expires in November 2015.

The BJP, which won 22 LS seats on its own and nine others through its two allies LJP and RLSP, clearly does not want to be seen as a desperate power-grabber and thereby hand the JD(U) and Mr Kumar the weapon of ‘martyrdom’ which they can use in coming polls.

According to BJP leaders, the party, wants the JD(U) to face further demoralisation caused by its own disarray before it lets go of the state government.